Moana 2
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 XD and IMAX
Manchester
December 1, 2024
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Moana 2 picks up three years after the events of the first movie. The titular hero (Auli’i Cravalho returns, just as good as the first time) is now a Wayfinder for her people, and must team up with her demigod friend Maui (Dwyane Johnson, always a pleasure) and crew of misfits to find a lost island hidden by the vengeful god Nalo.
I went into the movie expecting more of the same in a standard, safe Disney way. I was very pleasantly surprised both by the ingenuity of the team in finding ways to make the ocean feel new and lively again, and also by the risks that they took with Moana’s character.
What helps the movie feel larger is a sense of consequence. It’s not necessarily a bad consequence, although bad outcomes usually work better for storytelling since it gives the characters adversity to face and overcome.
This is all setup leading to a major spoiler: Moana dies in the movie.
I’m not making a big deal out of this because I’m interested in a dark twist or more “mature” storytelling, whatever that means. Instead, Moana’s death represents a return to consequential storytelling for Disney, where the threats live up to their buildup and enable true transformations for the protagonist.
The best example of this kind of storytelling is The Lion King. Scar was serious about being king, and the only way to accomplish that goal was to kill Mufasa and Simba. And then he went and did it. Scar living up to his reputation enabled the growth that Simba showed later in the film.
Similarly, Maui tells Moana flat out that if she goes to challenge Nalo, she will die. And then she does. There’s no cheat or trick to it, no clever way that our heroine escapes death at the last moment. The story tells us something about the potential consequences of Moana’s actions, and then sees it through to its conclusion.
Obviously, in a world of magic and demigods, I didn’t expect that Moana would stay dead, and she’s back alive and kicking before the scene is even over. But her death is now the catalyst for an incredibly exciting turn for the series: Moana is a demigoddess with powers of her own, and the possibilities for what that means are now endless.
That’s what I mean when I say that consequences don’t have to be bad. Death in storytelling can be about pain and loss, but it can also be a necessary step in transformation. Think Gandalf the Grey becoming Gandalf the White. Moana, as both a character and a franchise, can now do things we wouldn’t have considered before, and that alone makes this sequel worth the price of admission. The other elements of the movie help as well, of course. I found the music in Moana 2 to be a step above the offerings in part 1, although no song quite reaches the heights of “You’re Welcome” from the original. Still, I definitely found myself nodding along to the entire soundtrack, especially “What Could Be Better Than This,” which not only was a great song but also warmed me up to the rest of her crew on her adventure.
The visuals were spectacular. The giant clam that the crew encountered stands out as one of my favorite visual designs of the year, a genuinely creative and surprising set piece for staging the action midway through the movie. Nalo’s storm also lived up to the hype, combining visual and audio wizardry that had the entire theater shaking.
Moana 2 pulls off the most difficult task of a sequel by reminding us what we enjoyed about the original while also shaking up the status quo for the future of the franchise. Demigoddess Moana is a concept I’m genuinely looking forward to, and I’m already counting the days until Moana 3 arrives.
